You are here

Using historical gazetteers

Gazetteers are listings of places, providing information such as territorial division (county etc), location (eg latitude and longitude), alternate names, population size, etc. Some gazetteers give quite detailed descriptions of places, or the sheet numbers of relevant Ordnance Survey maps. There are many gazetteers in our collection, covering England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales at various points in time. By using historical gazetteers you can find out not only where a place was, but also some key information about that locality at a particular point in time.

Some British and Irish Gazetteers are available for reference in the Maps Reading Room. Others may be requested through the catalogue. Search using any of the following search terms: England AND gazetteer, Ireland AND gazetteer, Great Britain AND gazetteer, Wales AND gazetteer or Scotland AND gazetteer. Scroll down the catalogue record, select "In the Library" and then "Request this".

Excerpt from John Bartholomew and Son, Gazetteer of the British Isles, 9th ed., 1970, showing alphabetical listing of place names with details of each.